Tucked away in the Bugaboos, a sub-range of British Columbia's Purcell Mountains, lies one of the largest alpine rock walls in North America.

More than 3,000 feet from bottom to top, the west face of North Howser Tower is taller than Yosemite's El Capitan, more remote than the Diamond of Longs Peak and laced with snow and ice year round.

This isolated wall, despite it's location 1,100 miles north of the Front Range, has attracted an extraordinary amount of attention from Colorado climbers over the last two decades. Remarkably, of all the ambitious climbing pioneers in North America, nearly half of the first ascents on this Canadian wall have been pioneered by climbers from the Centennial State.

In mid-August, Jesse Huey and Maury Birdwell, of Boulder, carried the torch by making the first free ascent of Armageddon (5.12+), a spectacular route first climbed in 1999 by — you guessed it — Colorado locals, Johnny Copp and Mike Pennings.

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"I feel like there's a disproportionate amount of really adventurous Colorado climbers," said Will Stanhope, a prolific Bugaboo first ascensionist from Squamish, B.C. "You guys are heavy hitters, and you like to session up there because it's rowdy."

"Colorado just has a lot of folks who are willing to go for it," Birdwell agreed. "There are more free-wheeling, light-and-fast, alpine style climbers in Colorado than in a lot of other places."

The west face of North Howser Tower. At over 3,000 feet tall, it ranks as one of North America's biggest alpine rock walls. (Chris Atkinson / Courtesy photo)

North Howser Tower gained its first Colorado signature in 1996, when Topher Donahue and Kennan Harvey achieved the first free ascent of All Along the Watchtower (5.12).

The following year, Cameron Tague and Eric Greene established Spicy Red Beans and Rice (5.12- A1).

And in 2005, Bruce Miller and I spent two days establishing Hey Kool-Aid! (5.11 A1). Eleven days later, we repeated the route free (5.11+) in a 21-hour push from camp.

Armageddon went all free in 1999 save for one 25-foot section of aid that Huey and Birdwell hoped to free climb last month.

More than halfway up the wall, on Aug. 14, the pair faced a clean, steep corner with few visible holds.

"Looking up, it appeared unbelievably thin and wet, and undoubtedly hard," blogged Huey for his sponsor, Arc'Teryx (blog.arcteryx.com). "After all the days of training, time and money invested, we had finally arrived at the place I had been day-dreaming about for months."

Huey fought hard on his first try but he fell off, "totally out of gas and gear," he wrote. He aided the rest of the pitch that evening and left a rope in place. The pair rappelled more than 400 feet down to the only ledge big enough to sleep on.

The next morning Birdwell and Huey tag-teamed the crux pitch, deciphering free moves on toprope. After one failed lead attempt, Huey pulled the rope and tried again. "This time, I nailed the sequence ... and I felt my instincts starting to take over," he blogged.

Huey stretched and palmed his way through the crux and, at the top of the pitch, he screamed with success. Birdwell followed free and they continued up another 1,000 feet of challenging — though much easier — rock to the summit of the highest peak in the Bugaboos (11,194 feet).

If Colorado climbers are über-adventurous, what is it about this particular wall that attracts us?

"North Howser requires a particular skill set," explained Huey. "If you look at the guys who've put up routes there, they've all climbed on the Diamond a ton. It's a very similar environment, only bigger and more remote."

"Dude, I'm in (Eldorado Canyon) one morning a week," Birdwell explained. "In Boulder we can rock climb all year and we have the terrain to practice on. You just get good at moving quickly, placing gear and taking chances."

"The Bugaboos is one of those places that gets in your blood," said Stanhope.

And more than anyone else, Colorado climbers have left our blood on its highest summit — a tell-tale symptom of the Bugaboos bug.

Jesse Huey leads a clean 5.11+ pitch on Armageddon on the first day of an August ascent. The crux corner, which he and Maury Birdwell freed the following day, looms above. (Maury Birdwell / Courtesy photo)

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